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OBITUARY ADDRESSES 



ON THE 



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OF THE 



HOE WILLIAM R KING 



j, 



OP ALABAMA, 



VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 



DELIVERED IN THE 



Senate an* faitsc at typtrnmn, n)t m tire Siqrnme 
tart of Jk Hnftft States, 

EIGHTH AND NINTH DECEMBER, 1853. 




WASHINGTON: 
PRINTED BY ROBERT ARMSTRONG. 

1854. 






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|it ffje foitse of ^mnfotita of % Kioto* 



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December 19, 1853. 



Resolved, That the members of the House Committee on 
Printing cause to be published, and bound in pamphlet form, 
in such manner as may seem to them appropriate, for the 
use of the House, thirty thousand copies of the proceedings 
of the Senate and House of Representatives, and the ad- 
dresses of the members, in regard to the death of the late 
Vice-President of the United States, the Hon. William 
R. King, together with so much of the President's Message 
of the present Session as relates thereto, and the proceed- 
ings of the Supreme Court of the United States on the 
same subject. 



Attest, 



JOHN W. FORNEY. 
Clerk H. R. U. S. 



•® 



». 



gmflj of WMm |l lling. 



Extract from the Annual Message of the President of the United 

States to Congress. 

" Since the adjournment of Congress, the Vice-President 
of the United States has passed from the scenes of earth, 
without having entered upon the duties of the station to 
which he had been called by the voice of his countrymen. 
Having occupied, almost continuously, for more than thirty 
years, a seat in one or the other of the two Houses of Con- 
gress, and having by his singular purity and wisdom secured 
unbounded confidence and universal respect, his failing health 
was watched by the nation with painful solicitude. His loss 
to the country, under all the circumstances, has been justly 
regarded as irreparable." 



■• 




ititarj) %)iktsm. 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 

Thursday, December 8, 1853. 

Mr. HUNTER, of Virginia, rose and addressed the Senate 
as follows: 

Since the adjournment of the last Congress, an 
event has occurred Avhich it becomes us to notice. 
The American people have lost a Vice-President, 
and the Senate a Presiding Officer, by the death 
of William R. King, who departed this life in 
April last, at his home in the State of Alabama. 
I rise, as the Senators from that State are unavoid- 
ably absent, to ask that we may pause for a day at 
least in our deliberations upon the affairs of life, to 
devote it to the memory of one who was bound to 
us by so many personal and official ties. Surely, sir, 
there are none within the limits of this wide-spread 
Confederacy, to whom the life and services of William 
R. King are known, who would not be ready with 
some offering, either of public respect or personal 
affection, to bestow upon his tomb. There have been 
few public men, whose lives have been as long and 



c« 



■» 



.« 



as active as his, who have made more friends ; and 
none, I am sure, ever left fewer enemies. Nor was 
his one of those cold and impassive characters which 
shed their light without heat, but its kindly influ- 
ences fell with genial and friendly warmth within 
whatever circle he might move. 

It is a happy thing for a country when the lives 
of its public men may be thrown freely open to the 
world, and challenge its closest scrutiny, with a con- 
sciousness on the part of the friendly critic that there 
is no blot to be concealed, and no glaring fault which 
a love of truth forbids him to deny, and his own 
sense of right scarcely allows him to palliate. Here, 
at least, is a public man, in whose life there can be 
found no instance of a mean or equivocating action, 
none of a departure from the self-imposed restraints 
of a refined and lofty sense of honor ; and none in 
which either the fear of man or the seductions of 
ambition tempted him to a deed which could destroy 
either his own self-respect or the respect of others 
for him. He trod the difficult and devious paths to 
political preferment long and successfully, and yet he 
kept his robes unsoiled by the vile mire which so 
often pollutes those ways. It is said, that the story 
of every human life, if rightly told, may convey a 
useful lesson to those who survive. Of all the public 
men whom I have known, there are none whose lives 
teach more impressively the great moral of the 
strength which public virtue gives than that of Colo- 



«■ 



■i> 



■>« 



nel King. His was an instance in which greatness 
was achieved without the aid of those brilliant quali- 
ties whose rare assemblage the world calls genius, 
but by what is better far, a sound judgment, a reso- 
lute purpose to pursue the right, and a capacity to 
gather wisdom from experience. 

He was no orator, and yet from the force of cha- 
racter he could wield an influence which mere oratory 
never commanded. He had none of that presumptu- 
ous self-confidence which so often misleads ourselves 
and others, and which, though a dangerous, is still a 
commanding quality; but he knew how to inspire a 
people with a just confidence in the soundness of his 
judgment and the integrity of his purpose, so as to be 
looked to as a safe depositary of trust and power. 

Although gentle and kind m his intercourse with 
others, he could be stern enough when the public 
interests or his personal honour required it. He 
was a man, sir, whose whole soul would have sick- 
ened under a sense of personal dishonor. 

It is not surprising, then, that each step in the 
political career of such a man should have been 
crowned with public honors. At the age of twenty- 
one he was elected to the Legislature of North Caro- 
lina, his native State, where he served until he was 
made Solicitor. In that capacity he acted for two 
years; at the expiration of which time he was again 
returned to the Legislature, in which body he served 
during the years 1808-9. In 1810, being then 



«■ 



it. 



'9 



8 

twenty-five years of age, he was sent to the House 
of Representatives of the United States, where he 
served from 1811 to 1816, when he resigned to go 
abroad as Secretary of Legation to Mr. Pinckney, 
our Minister to Russia. Upon his return he emigrated 
to Alabama, where he was almost immediately sent 
to their Constitutional Convention. 

And at the first session of the first Legislature 
which assembled afterward, he was sent to the Senate 
of the United States from the State of Alabama, 
where he may be said to have served continuously, 
until his election to the Vice-Presidency, with the 
exception of two years, when he was Minister to 
France. Finally, he was elected the Vice-President 
of the United States by a large majority of the 
American people. As he ascended step by step to 
this elevation, his vision seemed to grow with his 
horizon, and when the occasion came, he was always 
found equal to it. For, to the aid of a sound judg- 
ment, he brought, as he grew older, the wisdom of a 
large experience. 

His political career may be said to have been one 
triumphant march through life ; a march in which 
his step neither faltered nor stumbled, in ascending 
to that place which was, perhaps, the chief object of 
his aspiration. And yet, as if to show that even the 
most successful of men must sooner or later feel the 
emptiness of the earthly objects of our usual pursuit, 
that much-prized honor was to him the Dead-Sea 



4> 



•■ 



■f 



9 

fruit, which turns to ashes on the lips. It came, but 
it came too late. The breath of public applause 
could not revive the flame which flickered in the 
lamp of life. In vain did the assiduity of relatives 
and friends surround him with affectionate care. In 
vain did the aspirations of a whole people ascend to 
Heaven for his recovery. The balmy influences of 
neither sea nor sky could revive or restore him. 
When the public messenger came to clothe him with 
the forms of office, his chief earthly wish was to see his 
home once more, and, in the midst of familiar scenes, 
to die among his friends. His desire was gratified. 
Life and its busy scenes on this side the grave are now 
closed on him for ever. But its tale yet remains to 
be told. Not by me, sir, or at this time. But it will 
be told in the chronicles of his State hereafter, when 
it may become a labor of love to some of her sons 
to write the story of its founders and sages. It will 
be told in our own political history, by whoever may 
portray the stirring and eventful scenes in which he 
acted a prominent and useful part. It will be told, 
too, and perhaps heard, with most interest in the 
traditions of a family of which he was the ornament 
and pride. 

Mr. President, those to whom our people have 
been long accustomed to look, in times of difficulty 
and emergency, for counsel and opinion, are falling 
fast around us. It is an anxious thing to feel their 
loss at a period like this, pregnant with change, and 



«■ 



f 

10 

teeming, perhaps, with great and strange events. 
The men we cannot recall ; but let us preserve their 
memories ; let us study their teachings ; and it will 
be well if, in many respects, we shall follow their 
examples. 

I offer the following resolution : — 

Resolved, That from respect to the late William R. King, 
Vice-President of the United States, and President of the 
Senate, the chair of the President of the Senate be shrouded 
with black; and, as a further testimony of respect to the 
memory of the deceased, the members of the Senate will go 
into mourning, by wearing crape on their left arm for thirty 
days. 

Ordered, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate 
this resolution to the House of Representatives. 



MR. EVERETT, of Massachusetts. 

Mr. President : — I have been requested to 
second the motion which has just been made by the 
Senator from Virginia. I do so with great cheerful- 
ness. It was my good fortune to enjoy the acquaint- 
ance of the late Vice-President- — I hope, even some 
portion of his friendly regard — for a longer period, 
probably, than most of those within the sound of my 
voice; a period of nearly thirty years. Such being 
the case, I feel as if I ought not to remain silent at 
this last moment, when our relations to him as mem- 



«■ 



->» 



11 

bers of this Senate are, by the performance of 
this day's melancholy duty, about to be closed for 
ever. 

There is an ancient maxim, Sir, founded at once in 
justice and right feeling, which bids us "say nothing 
but what is good of the dead." I can obey this rule, 
in reference to the late Vice-President, without vio- 
lating the. most scrupulous dictates of sincerity. I 
can say nothing but what is good of him, for I have 
never seen or heard any thing but good of him for 
thirty years that I have known him, personally and 
by reputation. 

It would hardly be expected of me to attempt to 
detail the incidents of the private life or the public 
career of the late Vice-President. That duty belongs 
to others, by whom it has been, or will no doubt be, 
appropriately performed. I regret, particularly on 
this occasion, the unavoidable absence of our col- 
leagues from Alabama. It is the province of those 
of us not connected with him by political associa- 
tions, especially of those inhabiting remote parts 
of our common country, to express their cordial 
concurrence in the affectionate praises pronounced 
by his fellow-citizens and neighbors. 

Few of the public men of the day had been so in- 
timately associated with the Senate as the late Vice- 
President. I think he had been a member of the 
body for more years than any person now belonging 
to it. Besides this, a relation of a different kind 



-« 



■1 



had grown up between him and the Senate. The 
Federal Constitution devolves upon the people, 
through the medium of the Electoral Colleges, the 
choice of the presiding officer of this body. But 
whenever the Senate was called to supply the place 
temporarily, for a long course of years, and till he 
ceased to belong to it, it turned spontaneously to him. 

He undoubtedly owed this honor to distinguished 
qualifications for the chair. He possessed, in an 
eminent degree, that quickness of perception, that 
promptness of decision, that familiarity with the now 
somewhat complicated rules of congressional proceed- 
ings, and that urbanity of manner, which are re- 
quired in a presiding officer. Not claiming, although 
an acute and forcible debater, to rank with his illus- 
trious contemporaries, whom now, alas ! we can men- 
tion only to deplore — with Calhoun, with Clay, and 
with Webster, (I name them alphabetically, and who 
will presume to arrange them on any other princi- 
ple,) whose unmatched eloquence so often shook the 
walls of this Senate — the late Vice-President pos- 
sessed the rare and the highly important talent of 
controlling, with impartiality, the storm of debate, 
and moderating between mighty spirits, whose ardent 
conflicts at times seemed to threaten the stability of 
the Republic. 

In fact, sir, he was highly endowed with what 
Cicero beautifully commands as the boni Senatoris 
prvdentia, the "wisdom of a good Senator ;" and in 



■a 



13 

his accurate study and ready application of the rules 
of parliamentary law, he rendered a service to the 
country, not perhaps of the most brilliant kind, but 
assuredly of no secondary importance. There is 
nothing which more distinguishes the great national 
race to which we belong, than its aptitude for govern- 
ment by deliberative assemblies; its willingness, 
while it asserts the largest liberty of parliamentary 
right, to respect what the Senator from Virginia, in 
another connection, has called the self-imposed re- 
strictions of parliamentary order; and I do not think 
it an exaggeration to say, that there is no trait in its 
character which has proved more conducive to the 
despatch of the public business, to the freedom of 
debate, to the honor of the country — I will say, even, 
which has done more to establish and perpetuate 
constitutional liberty. 

The long and faithful senatorial career of the late 
Vice-President received at last its appropriate re- 
ward. The people of the United States, having 
often witnessed the disposition of the Senate to pi ace 
him at their head, and the dignified and acceptable 
manner in which he bore himself in that capacity, 
conferred upon him, a twelvemonth since, that office, 
which is shown by repeated and recent experience 
to be above the second, if not actually the first, in 
their gift ; the office which placed him constitution- 
ally and permanently, during its continuance, in the 
chair of the Senate. 



§■ 



•i 



<s- 



"O 



14 

A mysterious dispensation of Providence has 
nipped these crowning honors in the bud. A disease, 
for which the perpetual summer and perfumed breezes 
of the tropics afforded no balm, overtook him at an 
age when he might, in the course of nature, have 
reasonably looked forward to still many years of 
active service. Clothed by a special and remarkable 
act of Congress, even while under a foreign jurisdic- 
tion, with the last constitutional qualification to 
enter upon the high office to which he had been 
elected, he returned, not to exercise its functions, 
but to seek his much-loved home, and there to 
die. 

Thus, sir, he has left us to chase for a little while 
longer the shadows which he has exchanged for un- 
utterable realities. He has left us prematurely for 
every thing but his spotless name, and his entrance 
on the well-earned honors of his unambitious career. 
And we, Senators, for all the interchange of kind- 
ness ; for all the cordial intercourse of private life ; 
for all the acts of co-operation in the public service, 
to which for at least four years the Senate was 
looking forward in its connection with him, have 
nothing left to offer to his friends and his memory, 
but the unavailing tribute of this last mournful 
farewell. 

Mr. President, I second the resolutions of the 
Senator from Virginia. 



"- 



•m 



«8 



15 

MR. CASS, of Michigan. 

Mr. President : — Again has death invaded the 
high places of our land, and has taken from us a 
citizen distinguished by his talents, his worth, and 
his services, and enjoying the confidence and affec- 
tion of his countrymen. In the Providence of God, 
these visitations come to warn us that none are 
exempt from the decree, that in life we are in the 
midst of death, and that " Be ye also ready" is a so- 
lemn admonition announced to us from the cradle to 
the grave, by the mighty and the lowly, as they suc- 
cessively fall before the great destroyer. The lesson 
is the more impressive, the higher is the position, 
and the more eminent the character of him whose 
departure we may be called upon to mourn. And 
when one who occupied the second station in our 
country is summoned from the duties of this life to 
the responsibility of that which is to come, as the 
loss is a national one, the manifestations of public 
sympathy and the acknowledgment of the public 
grief should be national also. Our lamented friend, 
the late Vice-President, has been taken from us, full 
of years indeed, and of honors, but in the midst of 
his usefulness, and when he was just prepared to 
enter upon the high career to which he had been 
called by the American people. Upon this occasion 
I desire to do little more than to express those senti- 
ments of affectionate regard with which an acquaint- 
ance of many years had inspired me, leaving to 



*# 



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16 

others, who have this day well fulfilled the task, to 
present those features of his character and services 
which endeared him to his countrymen in life, and 
will endear to them his memory, now that the scenes 
of life are for ever closed upon him. 

His career was eminently useful and fortunate; 
and in the whole range of American statesmen there 
are few, indeed, to whom our youth can better look, 
when seeking models of imitation and encourage- 
ment, than to William R. King. 

Firm but courteous, frank and fearless, of high 
honor and irreproachable morals, he brought a 
vigorous intellect, and varied and extensive in- 
formation, to the public councils ; and the ripe fruit 
of his experience, joined to these endowments, gave 
conviction to his opinion, and authority to his ex- 
ample. We always heard him with attention, for he 
elucidated every subject he investigated, and brought 
to our discussions the stores of his knowledge and 
experience, with a manner as unassuming as it was 
captivating. While loving the State in which he 
so long resided, and which had given him so many 
proofs of confidence and affection, he loved also our 
common country, and at home and abroad proved 
himself the true patriot, the able and faithful citizen. 
In all the relations of private life he was loved and 
honored, as well from the amenity of his manner 
as from the kindness of his heart, and in the social 
circle he was the very model of the accomplished 



■<§ 



17 

gentleman. For almost half a century he was in 
the public service, and was intimately connected 
with many of the great events which marked that 
long and stirring period, and he proved himself equal 
to all the circumstances in which he was placed, 
sustaining himself with signal ability among men 
whose renown is written in imperishable characters 
upon the history of our country. 

But better than all this, and above all this, he 
was a sincere Christian ; adding another to the long 
list of eminent men who have searched the gospel 
of Jesus and have found it the will and word of 
God. In his last illness, when the world and the 
things of the world were fast fading before him, he 
found hope and consolation in the promises of the 
Saviour; and calmly surveying the approach of 
death, he looked beyond its power to the glorious 
immortality promised to the believer. The places 
that knew him will know him no more ; but, though 
dead, his memory is embalmed in the hearts of his 
countrymen, and there it will live, honored and 
cherished, long after all those who are now taking part 
in this tribute to his worth shall have followed him in 
the journey, where, for a brief space, he has preceded 
us through the dark valley of the shadow of death. 

MR. DOUGLASS, of Illinois. 

I can scarcely hope to add any thing of value 
to what has been so well said by others. For the 



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18 



last eight months, the mournful event which is now 
officially announced to the Senate has been known, 
felt, and lamented by us all. In the mean time, we 
have passed through scenes well calculated to engross 
our thoughts and divert our attention, if not to ob- 
scure the freshness of the first impression, or assuage 
the keenness of that sorrow which filled every heart. 
But no matter what the lapse of time or its results, 
the meeting of the Senate, and the absence of one 
whom all admired and loved, and delighted to greet 
and honor, call up associations and reminiscences 
which impart to the occasion all the effects of a 
sudden and unexpected bereavement. Those whose 
happiness it was to be associated with Colonel King 
in public duty and private intercourse, are alone 
capable of realizing the extent of our loss. His ex- 
ample in all the relations life, public and private, 
may be safely commended to our children as worthy 
of imitation. Few men in this country have ever 
served the public for so long a period of time, and 
with a more fervent patriotism or unblemished 
reputation. For forty-five years he devoted his 
energies and talents to the performance of arduous 
public duties — always performing his trust with 
fidelity and ability, and never failing to command 
the confidence, admiration, and gratitude of an en- 
lightened constituency. While he held, in succession, 
numerous official stations, in each of which he main- 
tained and enhanced his previous reputation, yet the 



e- 



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19 

Senate was the place of his choice, and the theatre 
of his greatest usefulness. Here he sustained an 
enviable reputation during a period of thirty years' 
senatorial service, always manifesting his respect for 
the body by his courtesy and propriety of deport- 
ment. Here, where his character was best under- 
stood, and his usefulness and virtues most highly 
appreciated, his loss, as a public man and a private 
friend, is most painfully felt and deeply lamented. 



MR. CLAYTON, of Delaware. 

I shall only pay a debt of honor to the 
spirit of the dead, by offering my humble testi- 
monial in addition to what has been so appro- 
priately and eloquently expressed by others. A 
quarter of a century has elapsed since I became 
acquainted with William R. King as a brother Se- 
nator on this floor. During the greater part of that 
long period I was an attentive observer of his course 
as a public man, and I cannot in justice remain silent 
when an opportunity is offered of paying a tribute 
to the memory of one who so honorably deserved it. 

That man who, dying, can be said to have passed 
his days without a stain upon his reputation, has 
justly earned the honors due. to a wellspent life. 
The Roman poet has immortalized the sentiment — 

" Nee male vixit, qui natus moriensque fefellit." 

But William R. King, who was everywhere known, 



&~ 



•m 



20 

may be truly said to have passed from the cradle to 
the grave without a blot upon his name. 

The chief part of his history is written upon the 
records of this Senate, in which his high character 
as a legislator and a statesman was firmly established. 
I would avoid the commonplaces employed on oc- 
casions similar to the present when speaking of such 
a man. It is not enough to say of him that he per- 
formed his duties well as a member of the Senate. 
He was distinguished by the scrupulous correctness 
of his conduct. He was remarkable for his quiet 
and unobtrusive, but active, practical usefulness as a 
legislator. He was emphatically a business member 
of the Senate, and without ostentation, originated 
and perfected more useful measures than many who 
filled the public eye by greater display, and daily 
commanded the applause of a listening Senate. He 
never sought with some of his contemporaries to earn 
a brilliant reputation by the exhibition of splendid 
powers of oratory ; and, to his honor be it spoken, 
he never vexed the ear of the Senate with ill-timed, 
tedious, or unnecessary debate. He preferred to be 
checked for silence rather than to be tasked for 
speech. Yet, on all occasions when a great issue 
was before the country, calling for the exercise of 
manly firmness, courage, and patriotism, Mr. King 
was abreast with those who stood foremost for the 
safety and the glory of the Republic. 

He graced the chair of the Senate longer than 



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21 

any other man that ever occupied it — not continu- 
ously, or by virtue merely of repeated elections as 
our temporary President, but often also at the request 
of the Presiding Officer. I think he was thus engaged 
in the performance of the duties of President of the 
Senate during the greater part of the terms of five 
Vice-Presidents ; and at last he reached the second 
office in the gift of the people — an office excelled in 
honor only by one other in the world. To preside 
over such an assembly as the Senate of the United 
States, and to do that as he did it, was enough to 
satisfy the highest aspirations of an honorable and 
patriotic ambition. In this elevated position he was 
distinguished (and I may add he was never excelled) 
for the dignity of his deportment, the impartiality 
of his decisions, and the promptness and fidelity with 
which he maintained the order and enforced the rules 
of this body. I can remember no instance in which 
he lost sight of what was due to his own self-respect 
or the rights of his political opponents, by the indul- 
gence of party feelings in the chair. Presiding, as 
he did, when party spirit raged in torrents of fire, 
all just men will admit that he could have been no 
common man who maintained his high character for 
justice and impartiality at such a period. A little 
man, at that time, would have shown his littleness 
by yielding himself up as an instrument of oppression 
to the minority. But he sought an honest and 
enduring fame, and he obtained it without the em- 



«>■ 



•m 



®- 



■o 



22 



ployment of any unworthy means, or the slightest 
sacrifice of principle. He engaged no hireling press, 
no mercenary libeller to traduce others, or to trumpet 
his own fame. He paid respect to the feelings of 
others, and rigidly exacted the observance of the 
same respect for himself. Generous as he was brave, 
his conduct to his opponents suffering under defeat, 
was always liberal and kind ; and, by his inflexible 
truth, he won the entire confidence of men of all 
parties in his own unblemished honor. 

Others have spoken of his services in other places, 
but I shall speak of nothing to which I was not a 
witness. While Mr. King remained in the Senate, 
there was still one member of the body who had 
served with me on this floor during the memorable 
session of 1829-30, and the earlier years of Presi- 
dent Jackson's administration. It is melancholy to 
reflect that nearly all the rest of the Senators of 
that period have closed their career on earth, and 
that not one of those who survive remains here with 
me to-day. 

The master-spirits of the time were among the 
Senators of that day. I speak not of the living. 
But here, then, were Clay, Calhoun, Forsyth, Web- 
ster, and Livingston, the learned and laborious Wood- 
bury, the astute Grundy, the witty, sarcastic, and 
ever-ready Holmes, the classic Bobbins, and, among 
many others justly distinguished, the graceful and 
accomplished orator of Carolina, Robert Y. Hayne, 



s- 



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I® 



23 

" Whose words had such a melting flow, 
And spoke of truth so sweetly well, 
They dropp'd like the serenest snow, 
And all was brightness where they fell." 

Oh ! I could enumerate, and delight to dwell on 
the virtues of them all—and then revert to him 
whose fame we now commemorate, as to one not in- 
ferior in integrity and honor to the proudest among 
them. But these reminiscences are attended by the 
mournful reflection that our connections with them 
in this world are ended for ever— 

"Around us, each dissever'd chain 

In sparkling ruin lies, 
And earthly hands can ne'er again 
Unite those broken ties." 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 

MR. HUNTER. 

As a further mark of respect to the memory of 
the deceased, I move that the Senate do now ad- 
journ. 

^ The motion was agreed to, and the Senate ad- 
journed to Monday. 



1 



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IP- 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



Thursday, December 8, 1853. 



A message was received from the Senate by the hands 
of Asbury Dickens, its Secretary, as follows : 

In Senate, December 8, 1853. 

Resolved unanimously, That from respect to the late 
William R. King, Vice-President of the United States, 
and President of the Senate, the chair of the President be 
shrouded with black ; and as a further testimony of respect 
for the memory of the deceased, the members of the Senate 
will go into mourning by wearing crape on the left arm for 
thirty days. 

Ordered, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate 
this resolution to the House of Representatives. 
The message having been read — 

MR. HARRIS, of Alabama, rose and said : 

Mr. Speaker: — The tidings of the mournful 
event which the resolution from the Senate is in- 
tended to commemorate, have months ago been 
heralded to every hamlet of our wide-spread con- 
federacy ; and the generous hearts of even distant 

i>4 



■s 



25 

lands have mingled their regrets with our own, that 
a wise and virtuous and distinguished man has been 
stricken from the number of earth's children. Tears 
have ceased to flow; and hearts the most deeply 
penetrated by the afflicting visitation of Providence, 
have learned to contemplate it with that spirit of 
resignation which time ever supplies as a medicine 
for the sorrows of earth. 

But in conformity with a solemn and impressive 
usage, the Senate, over whose deliberations the dis- 
tinguished dead so long presided with such marked 
ability, pauses from its labors to consecrate a brief 
day to the memory of William R. King. And while 
the sympathizing sons of sister States gather around 
his bier, I crave the indulgence of the House of Re- 
presentatives, while, in behalf of the State of Ala- 
bama, I offer the tribute of her homage and respect 
to the memory of her most distinguished citizen. 

Recent events, familiar to us all, render unneces- 
sary any thing more than a cursory allusion to the 
political services of William R. King. 

He was born on the 7th day of April, 1786, in 
the State of North Carolina. Coming into being 
almost contemporaneously with the adoption of our 
Federal Constitution, his eventful and protracted life 
covers one of the most remarkable periods in the 
history of the world. When the dawn of mature 
manhood first began to open upon him, the great ex- 
periment of self-government, whose principles were 



»s 



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26 

evolved from our Revolutionary struggle, had just 
fairly emerged from the misty domain of specula- 
tion, and assumed the form and semblance of a 
philosophic truth. Instinct with the spirit of the 
age, and true, as he proved to be through life, to 
the principles of the republican school, he connect- 
ed his fortunes with that party which claimed, as 
the exponents of its political faith, Jefferson and 
Madison. 

He had no sooner attained his majority than he 
was elected a member of the Legislature from his 
native county. He was re-elected the ensuing year ; 
but the Legislature of which he was a member, 
having conferred upon him the Solicitorship of the 
judicial circuit in which he resided, he resigned his 
seat in that body. After holding the office of Soli- 
citor for two years, he was again returned to the 
Legislature for the years 1808-9. In 1810, so 
soon as he had attained the age prescribed by the 
Constitution, he was elected a member of Congress 
from the Wilmington district, in which body he con- 
tinued to serve until the year 1816. During this 
period of American history, there were just ascend- 
ing from the verge of the jDolitical horizon, and 
rapidly tending toward the zenith, names which 
were destined to illustrate the greatness of our 
country, and impress themselves imperishably 
upon her monumental records. That immortal 
triumvirate, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, for 



t« 



v %JBffrlJ.,'l_m3 



27 

whose decease the sable habiliments of a nation's 
wo have scarce disappeared, were just then be- 
ginning to exhibit the giant proportions of their 
unmatched intellects, and entrancing their country- 
men and the world by the electric power of their 
resistless eloquence. Randolph and Lowndes were 
there too — and other great names indelibly secured 
by the diamond pen of history's muse. Among these 
stood William R. King, a co-worker and a compeer. 
Differing somewhat from them all in many of those 
great attributes of mind, which dazzle and lead cap- 
tive the admiring throng; yet in all the elements 
which go to make up the useful legislator — in pru- 
dence, caution, firmness, wisdom, and patriotism — 
occupying with them the same proud pedestal; and 
lending his influence and his voice to the successful 
vindication of " free trade and sailors' rights." 

In 1816, Mr. King, having been tendered the 
appointment of Secretary of Legation under Mr. 
Pinckney, resigned his seat in Congress, and ac- 
companied that distinguished statesman, first to 
Naples, and afterward to St. Petersburg. Having 
returned home at the expiration of two years, he 
determined to break from the endearments of his 
fatherland, and cast his fortunes in the then almost 
unpeopled wilds of distant Alabama. This land 
was now to constitute the theatre of his after use- 
fulness. God gave him sufficient length of days to 
see « the wilderness blossom as the rose ;" and be- 



-* 



r 



28 



hold the territory which he had adopted as his 
home, emerge from its chrysalis state to the full- 
blown condition of a sovereign party to the Union, 
and, under the nurturing appliances of intellect and 
industry, attaining a degree of wealth and prosperity 
commensurate with his own increasing fame. 

Soon after Mr. King's arrival in the Territory, he 
was deputed a delegate to the Convention which 
assembled to organize a State government. To the 
performance of the delicate and responsible duties 
of this new position, he brought the aid of that 
matured experience he had gathered in the councils 
of the Union, and was one of the most active and 
efficient of those who laid the foundations of our 
State polity. So soon as the constitution was put 
in operation, he was chosen one of the Senators 
from that State in the Congress of the United 
States. From that period, Mr. Speaker, to the time 
when the voice of all the people of the Union called 
William R. King to the second office in their gift — 
a period of more than thirty years, he continued to 
speak for Alabama upon the floor of the Senate ; 
saving the brief period of two years — during which 
time he represented this government at the Court 
of St. Cloud. In verity, he was to Alabama a true 
and faithful son, as she was unto him a cherishing 
mother! Truly has he filled the measure of a 
patriot's duty, for his entire life was devoted to 
the service of his country. 



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29 



As may justly be inferred, from the long and un- 
checked career of success which distinguished the 
life of Mr. King, and the respect and confidence he 
always enjoyed, his popularity was not the result 
of those factitious aids which give to demagogues 
and political tricksters an ephemeral existence, but 
was the natural consequence and well-deserved re- 
compense of his exalted qualities of head and heart. 
For forty years he brought to his country's use the 
rich gifts of his patriotism and his wisdom — the 
glowing energies of his early manhood, and the ma- 
tured counsels of a wise and honorable old age. In- 
telligence, honesty, and fidelity distinguished the 
administration of every public trust confided to his 
hands. Amid all the fluctuations of public senti- 
ment, and all the mutations of party, he pursued the 
path of duty by the light of principle, and dying, 
leaves behind him an example of consistency and 
public virtue, upon which the patriot may ponder 
with pleasure, and from which the mere aspirant for 
worldly honor may draw an instructive lesson. His 
life is a beautiful illustration of the truth, that the 
line of duty is alike the path of safety and the way 
to honor. 

The personal character of Mr. King was affluent 
in all those qualities which contribute to the forma- 
tion of an almost perfect man. To wisdom and 
patriotism as a statesman, to love of right, and 
devotion to principle, he added a temper respectful 



30 



and courteous to others; a courage unquestioned, and 
honor intact. No stain blurred the pure ermine of 
his good name. Conceding to all men the full mea- 
sure of what was their due, he was punctilious in the 
exaction of what was due to himself. Exempt from 
that acrimony which party collision too often en- 
genders, and always tolerant of the opinions of others, 
he was inflexible and unswerving in the maintenance 
of his own — 

" Vir Justus, et tenax propositi." 

In all those more intimate and tender relations 
which bound him to his friends, his kindred, and his 
servants, he was all that friendship could ask, or affec- 
tion claim, or humanity and kindness enjoin. While 
in that higher and more solemn relation, which he 
bore to the Author of us all, he was exact and scru- 
pulous in the discharge of all those duties enjoined 
by a regard for the sacred behests of religion ; — and 
in the closing scenes of life's fleeting, final hour, he 
leaned with humble trust upon the merits of his 
Saviour. 

11 His life was gentle — and the elements 
So mix'd in him, that nature might stand up 
And say to all the world — ' This was a man.' " 

In the first month of this year, the Vice-President 
resigned his post of Presiding Officer of the Senate, 
with the vain hope that a winter residence in Cuba 
might ameliorate his health. But the balmy breezes 



s> 



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31 

of the ocean gem could not relume the waning fire 
that flickered to its close. Death was demanding its 
victim, and the dying patriot felt that he must need 
obey the summons. He hastened home from Cuba 
to spend his last hours among the friends who 
watched with such intense solicitude his gradual 
decline. Like the imprisoned monarch whose life 
went out on the storm-rocked island of the sea, he 
did not wish to sleep upon a foreign strand, but 
rather on the banks of the Alabama, "in the bosom 
of the people he had loved so well," and served so 
faithfully. In the midst of that people he died— 
beneath that sod he takes his final rest. But a fra- 
grance shall still cling around his memory, exhaled 
from the clustering virtues which beautified his cha- 
racter. Calmly he confronted the icy monster; and 
with Christian dignity, resigned him to his fate. 
"Be silent," said he, to the anxious friends around 
him, "let me die quietly." Silence prevailed, and 
quietly his noble spirit passed to the land of shadows. 
"He sat, as sets the morning star, which goes 
Not down behind the darken'd west, nor hides 
Obscured amid the tempests of the sky- 
But melts away into the light of heaven." 
How fruitful, Mr. Speaker, in admonition to us, 
who were associated with Mr. King in the direction 
of this great Government, and who now survive 
him, are the circumstances which give such melan- 
choly prominence to the closing hours of his life. 






■» 



s- 



•9 



Upon the full tide of an almost popular acclaim, he 
had been just elevated to one of the most exalted 
stations of the earth. But along with the flattering- 
consciousness of popular confidence and merited pro- 
motion, came the stunning sense that life's decaying 
energies were sinking to the grave. While the joyous 
gratulations of an admiring people were welling up 
from the depths of the nation's heart, and falling 
with thrilling accents upon the ear of gratified am- 
bition, there was mingling with them another voice 
from the spirit-land, whose tones were heard above 
the loud tumult of popular applause, and calling to 
the failing statesman — 

" Child of the dust, come away !" 

The garlands had been thrust upon the victim, only 
that it might prove a more fitting sacrifice for the 
altar, which already smoked for its immolation. 
What a humiliating mockery of earth's asrjirations, 
which end in nothingness — of its evanescent honors, 
which vanish at the touch ! and how strikingly sug- 
gestive of the solemn reflection that 

" The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 

Mr. Speaker, I offer the following resolution : 

Resolved, That from an unfeigned respect to the late 
William R. King, Vice-President of the United States, and 
President of the Senate, the Speaker's chair be shrouded in 
black during the present session of Congress ; and, as a fur- 
ther testimony of respect for the memory of the deceased,, 



-# 



1 

33 

the members and officers of this House will go into mourn- 
ing, and wear black crape on the left arm for thirty days. 

Resolved, As a further mark of respect, that this House 
do now adjourn. 

MR. CHANDLER, of Pennsylvania, rose and said — 
Mr. Speaker : — The spectacle presented in this 
House, at the present moment, is replete with instruc- 
tion and encouragement. 

The representatives of a great nation pause, in the 
midst of the initiation of legislative business, to ex- 
press respect for a citizen who owed his elevation 
less to those striking qualities that are sure to excite 
public interest and insure popular favor, than to 
those gentle virtues which are so slow to secure 
general appreciation. 

The Congress of the United States, in paying the 
tribute of gratitude to the departed functionary, de- 
clares that it commemorates the virtue by which he 
achieved elevation, and thus it connects purity of 
social life with the honors of official distinction. 

The Representatives from the State of Alabama 
have requested me to take a part in the discharge of 
the melancholy duties in which this House is now 
engaged. It is an honor to be called to do honor to 
the memory of the good ; and patriotism finds a 
grateful exercise in recalling the obligations under 
which the nation rests to those who have done ser- 
vice to her in places of distinction. 

3 

i 



f- 



34 



I should have promptly declined the service, if I 
did not believe that my colleagues, the Representa- 
tives of Pennsylvania on this floor, shared in the 
sentiments of respect for the dead which I entertain, 
but which I shall so feebly express ; and while they 
and their constituents, and mine, judge according to 
their various political creeds, of the public measures 
which are connected with the name and services of 
the deceased, they have looked through the mist 
with which party hostility and party partiality alike 
invest their objects, and have done honor to the 
purity of motive and the consistency of patriotism, 
in which those measures were proposed or advocated. 

I do not suppose, that in the tribute which we are 
now paying to the memory of a distinguished states- 
man, we are acquitting ourselves, as the representa- 
tives of the people, of the indebtedness of the country 
for services through years of unremitted devotion. 
Sir, while the nation shall enjoy the prosperity with 
which she is now blessed, she will feel and confess 
her obligations to those whose talents, virtues, and 
devotion procured the blessing. And should adverse 
circumstances overtake us, we should then recall the 
lessons of wisdom and patriotism which the lives and 
services of our good men impart ; and while we should 
lament the consequences of a neglect of their exam- 
ples and precepts, we should do honor to virtues 
which we had ceased to imitate, and venerate the 
patriotism which we had forgotten to follow. 

a § 



35 



The gentleman who has preceded me has given to 
the House a sketch of the public services of the late 
Vice-President King. It is an instructive lesson ; 
one that we should " teach diligently unto our chil- 
dren." One that at the present time comes with 
peculiar pertinency, and seems to illustrate the 
nature of our institutions, and to encourage the 
growth of quiet, unobtrusive virtues, by showing the 
ability of the people to appreciate, and their willing- 
ness to reward them. The history of our country 
shows that consummate statesmanship may be com- 
bined with the possession and professional exercise 
of military skill. The halls of legislation, and the 
bureaus of the Departments have been the arenas of 
noble and successful efforts of those who came from 
the activity of the camp to take part in peaceful 
forensic contests, or to discharge the duties of minis- 
terial office. And we have seen the accomplished 
warrior lay aside his military trappings, and assume 
the garb and discharge the duties of the first office 
of our nation. 

But while these things show the versatility of 
genius, and the wonderful adaptation of mental 
powers, they lead sometimes to the apprehension 
that the people, who seemed so struck with the ser- 
vices of the military man, would overlook the unob- 
trusive qualities of the civilian, and forget that 
patriotism has its services and its sacrifices in the 
halls of legislation and the walks of diplomacy ; and 



a- 



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(f- 



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36 



that the qualifications for lofty place were to be 
manifested in the silent, laborious, unpretending pri- 
vacy of the closet, as well as in the more stirring 
and striking duties of military life. 

The official life of Mr. King redeems the people of 
the United States from imputations of a false esti- 
mate by a false standard of the services of their 
public functionaries, and it shows how much con- 
fidence may be placed in their judgment of the capa- 
bility of men to discharge distinguished trusts. 

The manners of Mr. King were unobtrusive, re- 
tiring, gentle. No appearance, no act of his could 
be regarded as challenging attention. He moved 
among his fellow-men with manifestations of constant 
respect for their rights and their positions; and 
among his fellow-legislators he was distinguished by 
that constant deference to others which is the cha- 
racteristic of excessive modesty and available talents. 
Abroad, sir, in Europe, he presented himself with no 
demands, as a man, upon the consideration of others, 
and no claim to distinction, in the free use of his 
ample means. But as the representative of a nation 
of freemen, he claimed the regard which his repre- 
sentative character challenged, and he maintained 
social hospitalities with the profusion which his 
ample means warranted, and his generous patriotism 
suggested. 

Mr. King, sir, was a party man. Few men, Mr. 
Speaker, attain political distinction in a country like 



*- 



■* 



-* 



37 



ours without party attachments and party feelings. 
And none will more readily pardon Mr. King for his 
efforts for party measures than those, who, differing 
from him in politics, know by the purity of their own 
motives how to do justice to the sincerity of those 
by which he was influenced; and this the more 
readily, because the courteous bearing of that distin- 
guished man deprived his opposition of all appear- 
ance of bitterness, drew from the defeat of his oppo- 
nents, when their defeat ensued, the sting of morti- 
fied self-esteem, or imparted to his own discomfort 
the ease of gentlemanly submission. 

Sir, from the quiet walks of life, that seemed at 
first to promise little eminence, Mr. King rose to the 
second office in this great republic ; attaining that 
position, too, in the midst of all his country's great- 
ness, in the midst of all her amplitude of extent, and 
in the midst of all her profusion of means; more 
than that, sir, in the midst of all her munificence 
of men. 

Though absent, sir, absent to die, far from the im- 
mediate seat of his duties, yet the memory of his 
excellence and purity sustained him in the affection 
and respect of his brethren of the Senate chamber, 
who seemed to feel it a pleasure as well as a duty to 
testify to him their full appreciation of his concilia- 
tory habits, his sagacity as a statesman, and his jus- 
tice as their Presiding Officer. 

The annunciation to-day of the death of Mr. Vice- 



t- 



38 



President King comes to us, sir, with no surprise. 
The nation has already, in some form, manifested its 
regard for a faithful public servant. The announce- 
ment brings no monition of the brevity of human 
enjoyment and the uncertainty of human life. He 
had lived nearly to man's appointed time, and be- 
yond man's common lot, and had enjoyed much 
more than ordinary honors. It comes not now, sir, 
to startle us into any manifestation of special sorrow. 
Months have passed since he breathed forth his gen- 
tle spirit to God who gave it : and the poignant grief 
which his death caused, even in his limited family 
circle has given place to the silent sorrow that occu- 
pies itself in a mournful, placid recollection of the 
virtues of the dead. 

We listen, sir, to-day, to the formal annunciation 
of the demise of Mr. King, that we may, by public 
demonstration, show to the world our respect for 
the high office which he vacated by his death, and 
our appreciation of the beautiful moral qualities and 
statesmanlike abilities by which he illustrated all 
offices in his life. 

The addresses on this occasion, and the adoption 
of the resolutions which are now on the table, can 
add nothing to the future happiness of the dead — 
cannot augment the fame which his social virtues 
and his public career have earned. But, sir, they tell 
the world that a republic can be grateful to those 
who have done her service, and that republicans can 



«- 



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— m 



39 



appreciate those gentle qualities which give dignity 
and honor to a statesman's life and insure peace and 
consolation to a Christian's death. 

MR. MILTON S. LATHAM, of California, said : 
Mr. Speaker: — Gratitude for the kindness of 
a friend, as well as reverence for the greatness of a 
man, prompt me to unite my stranger voice with 
yours in this mournful requiem for the departed. 
And if an apology be needed, that thus early I claim 
your attention, let it be enough to say that from the 
lips now cold and fixed, and the voice now hushed 
in death, came first the encouraging words of counsel 
and incentive, the gentle tones of sympathy and 
feeling, that have placed me, to-day, among you. I 
could leave to the gentlemen who have preceded 
me, and to the quiet meditation of my own heart, the 
retrospect of his irreproachable life, and the rehearsal 
of the noble principles that he so long and firmly 
advocated, were it not that over every mountain 
and valley, every plain and ravine of California, are 
scattered thick the adopted homes of Alabamians, 
who, while the memories of their childhood are 
fresh, or the graves of their fathers green, can never 
fail, with you, to remember the life of the statesman 
with exultation, or forget to mourn the death of the 
good man with sympathetic expression. How na- 
tural, then, that I should turn your attention to a 
few pages in the history of a man, who has filled 



•■ 



-® 



40 



•® 



every place but one, to which the ambition of an 
American citizen may aspire, and has filled all with 
distinguished credit to himself and honor to the 
country. 

William Rufits King was a noble specimen of an 
American statesman and gentleman. The intimate 
friend of John C. Calhoun, and the contemporary of 
Webster, Clay, Cass, and Benton, he maintained a 
proud position in the Senate of the United States 
by his strong, practical good sense, his experience 
and wisdom as a legislator, the acknowledged recti- 
tude of his intentions, and that uniform urbanity of 
manner which marked, not so much the man of 
conventional breeding, as the true gentleman at 
heart. He was no sophist to himself, and hence it 
was that he was truthful and sincere to all the world. 
His course in the Senate was considerate and digni- 
fied. He never yielded to the impulse of the mo- 
ment, but made his tongue wait upon his judgment. 
He never knew what it was to speak, act, or legislate 
by indirection. He was frank and loyal to his col- 
leagues, as he was devoted to his own State, and 
sincerely attached to the Union. Is it a wonder, 
then, that the Senate listened to every word which 
fell from his lips ; that his voice was potential when- 
ever it pleaded the cause of his country ? 

It is said that during a primary meeting held by 
one of the factions into which the first French Na- 
tional Convention was divided, one of the men who 



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41 

afterward played a most conspicuous part in history, 
spoke but a few words, and these without emphasis. 
Yet such was the conviction he produced, that his 
views were instantly adopted. He possessed the 
genius of character ; he believed what he said, and 
j^roduced conviction in others. It is this peculiar 
" genius of character" which gave force and direction 
to Mr. King's speeches in the United States Senate, 
and produced that deference to his avowed opinions 
and principles which none of his colleagues shared 
in a more eminent degree. In all that belonged to 
him individually, Mr. King was the very type of an 
American gentleman. Free from artifice and dis- 
guise, his every thought and instinct was chivalric. 
Not to adventitious circumstances, not to the chances 
of birth or fortune, not to the society into which he 
was thrown, was he indebted either for the dis- 
tinction to which he rose in public life, or to the 
grace which adorned his private character. He 
never borrowed thoughts or sentiments from others. 
His mind and heart were of American growth, while 
his eminent virtues served to illustrate our national 
character. As Americans, we recognise no standard 
of greatness which is not based on moral excellence, 
such as pre-eminently distinguished the early 
founders of our institutions and laws ; and, in this 
respect, few of the great men whose names have 
passed into our history can boast of a nearer ap- 
proach to those great exemplars than he whose irre- 



§» 



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ffi- 



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42 

parable loss we now mourn in common witb the 
whole country. During his long and eventful life, 
of which a very large portion was spent in the 
public service, there is not an act which can be re- 
ferred to but to his honor — not a suspicion that 
could mar the purity and lustre of his escutcheon. 
Mr. King became a member of the Senate in 1819, 
when the State of Alabama was admitted into the 
Union, and enjoyed the honor of representing her, 
with but one intermission, ever since. He was a 
member of that body when he was nominated for 
the Vice-Presidency, and its presiding officer. The 
respect of his colleagues had already assigned him 
the place to which he was subsequently called by 
the almost unanimous voice of the people. He was 
from principle and conviction a States' Eights man; 
but he did not love the Union less because he loved 
Alabama more. While he was serving his own 
State with fidelity and honor, he was not remiss in 
his duties to the whole American Confederacy. 
Like his illustrious prototype, John C. Calhoun, he 
battled for the rights of his State, in order to secure 
that harmony between Federal and State power, 
which is the essence of the Union, and without 
which it is impossible to preserve our system of self- 
government. In the memorable session of 1849-50, 
Mr. King voted for nearly all the compromise 
measures as an act of devotion to the National 
Union, without surrendering a single cardinal point 



w 



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m. 



43 



of the political faith which had guided him through 
life, and had secured to him the affection and at- 
tachment of the citizens of his own State. The 
most important event in his political history was 
when he represented the United States in the Court 
of France, during a most interesting and exciting 
period. It was well known that the governments 
of England and France, severally and jointly, op- 
posed the annexation of Texas to the American 
Union, and that similar instructions had been given 
by these governments to their respective ministers 
in Washington and Texas. These instructions were, 
no doubt, intended to be used with diplomatic effect; 
neither party seeming at the time willing to pro- 
ceed to extremities. Mr. King, true to American 
character, and to the generous instincts of his na- 
ture, did not plunge into the labyrinth of European 
diplomacy. He had nothing to disguise, nothing to 
withhold, nothing to ask for that was not just; and 
with the straightforwardness and dignity which 
ought always to characterize an American minister 
abroad, at once demanded of the King himself a 
frank avowal of his intentions. Louis Philippe 
might have been prepared to evade the artful ap- 
proaches of a Talleyrand or a Richelieu, but he had 
no means of refusing to answer a plain question, 
honestly proposed by a foreign minister, whose 
official rank did not add the weight of a feather to 
the volume of his private character. Mr. King re- 



i^ 



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44 



a 



ceived the desired reply as to the final course the 
French government meant to adopt should Texas be 
annexed, and became at once satisfied that our re- 
lations with France would not be disturbed by the 
event. The king's reply was reported to Mr. Cal- 
houn, then Secretary of State, and the annexation 
was accomplished, without even a protest from any 
European power. Subsequently, when the diplomatic 
correspondence was published, Mr. Guizot, then the 
French Premier, attempted to raise a question of 
veracity between himself and Mr. King, in regard 
to the reply given by Louis Philippe to our repre- 
sentative in Paris. But such was the character for 
honesty and truth he had established for himself 
during his short residence in the French capital, and 
such the suspicions with which Mr. Guizot's acts 
were viewed by the French public, that there was 
not a single French paper which dared to doubt the 
word of our minister; and the aspersion was only 
translated from an English paper, and published in 
the French government journal. The object was 
merely to justify the policy of France as against 
England ; but our minister's straightforward course 
put an end even to that subterfuge. He demanded, 
as a gentleman, that the King should respect the 
assurance given him in regard to Texas; and the 
King did respect it, and Mr. Guizot furnished a copy 
of it in writing to Mr. King. Thus did not only our 
Government but the person of our minister achieve 



-® 



45 



a signal triumph over the sinuous course of European 
politics and statesmen. 

Pending this controversy, it is said, Mr. Guizot 
attempted to assuage Mr. King, by assuring him 
that " he had often been told that he (Guizot) lied." 
To which Mr. King modestly replied, that "he had 
never been told so." French appreciation of sarcasm 
had no difficulty in discovering the true meaning of 
Mr. King's caustic reply. I cannot but allude to his 
kind and noble disposition to bring forward and 
advance the fortunes of young men, struggling up in 
life. I have myself been the recipient of his kind- 
ness in this respect. In all such relations he never 
assumed the position of patron and client. It was 
not his position, but his heart which determined the 
place occupied by his friends, and his exalted cha- 
racter looked to no return of favors. After his election 
to the Vice-Presidency, when lingering under a pain- 
ful and mortal disease, in a foreign country, his 
thoughts naturally reverted to his own beloved Ala- 
bama. Once more he wished to behold the sun of 
his country — once more he desired to breathe the 
invigorating air of home. Friend and kindred had 
followed him abroad ; but he yearned for a wider 
circle of hearts beating in unison with his own. The 
American people had taken a deep interest in his 
recovery. They had a pride in seeing him occupy 
the position to which their suffrages had raised him. 
They had an abiding confidence in his integrity as a 



»- 



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46 

statesman, and a warm sympathy for his bodily suf- 
ferings. With breathless anxiety did the people 
receive the tidings of the progress of his illness, and 
each note of sorrow, which travelled with the velo- 
city of light, found a painful echo in the public 
breast. To the people of his country did the old 
statesman and patriot return, to draw his last breath. 
Once more he trod the soil of his home ; once more 
his eyes gladdened with the sight of his native land, 
— free, prosperous, and happy; once more his heart 
beat with rapturous delight at the future prospect 
and greatness of this glorious Union. The strife and 
clamor of ruthless partisans had subsided ; the olive- 
leaf of peace had once more spread her blessings 
over twenty-five millions of contented beings ; and 
as his dying lips murmured a blessing on them all, 
his pure soul was wafted to that unknown land, 
which, in the midst of the busy scenes of his life, his 
Christian heart always looked to as his last and 
surest resting-place. 

" Lives of great men all remind us 
We can make our lives sublime; 
And departing, leave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time. 

" Footprints that perhaps another, 
Sailing o'er life's solemn main — 
A forlorn and shipwreck' d brother — 
Seeing, shall take heart again. 



*M) 



47 

" Let us, then, be up and doing, 
With a heart for any fate ; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait." 



MR. TAYLOR, of Ohio, said : 

Mr. Speaker : — Death has so often invaded this 
House during the six years in which I have been a 
member of Congress, that whenever a new Congress 
convenes, I am strongly impressed with the convic- 
tion, that some of our body, during their term of 
service, must pay the debt of nature, and end their 
lives in the public service. The Senate, though 
only numbering sixty-two members, rarely passes a 
session without being called upon to pay the usual 
funeral honors to some one or more of its members. 
Even the Executive mansion is not "unfrequently 
invaded by the King of Terrors ; and men in public 
station are everywhere constantly reminded, that for 
life, and all their earthly blessings, they are depend- 
ent upon Him " in whose hands our breath is, and 
whose are all our ways." 

The official announcement of the death of the Hon. 
William R. King, late Vice-President of the United 
States, and the well-deserved eulogies this day pro- 
nounced upon his character, bring freshly to our 
recollection the manly form and gentlemanly bearing 
of that distinguished man, and his long and eminent 
public service. 



<Sm 



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48 



With the incidents of his private life and history 
I am not so familiar as to speak advisedly : but his 
personal friends upon this floor have clearly presented 
them for our consideration. I had the pleasure to 
know him for many years, as a public man ; and to 
meet him often in the social circles of this city. And 
though we differed widely in our opinions upon some 
of the most important political questions that have 
lately agitated the country, I always found him 
mingling moderation with firmness, and a proper 
respect for the opinions of those who differed with 
him. A just and high sense of honor seemed to me 
to mark his public and private career ; and I cheer- 
fully express these views of the distinguished man, 
whose death we now commemorate, because I hold 
that no differences of opinion in politics should ever 
make us forget that we are all Americans ; that we 
are all under the protection of the same Constitution 
and laws, and must share alike the benefits or evils 
that may result from our public actions. A higher 
motive should always check a too great asperity of 
political feeling, and inculcate a wise moderation and 
proper toleration toward those who differ with us. 
For, after all, the exertions of the wisest and the 
best men among us are but transient ; they are vain 
and futile, unless sanctioned and approved by the 
great Author of all good. Mr. King appeared to me 
possessed, in a high degree, of a wise moderation, 
and of a tolerant spirit ; and his long experience in 



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49 

public life made him eminently useful. He seemed 
to me to combine, in a very high degree, the strictest 
integrity and purest honor, and what the great poet 
so admirably portrays — 

" With all good grace to grace a gentleman." 



MR. ASHE, of North Carolina, rose, and said — 

Mr. Speaker : — Having the honor to represent 
the county in which William R. King was born, and 
the larger portion of the district which first returned 
him as a member of this House ; having enjoyed, in 
a manner grateful to my recollection, his friendship 
and confidence, and being at present the representa- 
tive of a numerous and highly respectable kindred 
he left with us, I feel it a solemn duty that I should 
not allow the present occasion to pass without add- 
ing my humble but heartfelt testimonial to the 
truthfulness of the richly-deserved and high com- 
mendations which have been bestowed on him by 
the honorable gentlemen who have preceded me. 
After the indulgence of obsequial griefs, which are a 
fit tribute to departed worth, the soul thirsts to im- 
mortalize, to assimilate to itself the noble and vir- 
tuous endowments of deceased friends. Hence we 
have, as the remains of a venerable antiquity, the 
most magnificent Egyptian pyramids, splendid Gre- 
cian mausoleums, Roman sepulchres of extensive 

dimensions ; but these were designed to portray the 

4 



■atr^) 



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50 



outward rather than the inward man. As ancillary 
to the same end, various expedients and devices were 
adopted to perpetuate, to rescue from the destruction 
of time the personal appearance, after the soul had 
taken its flight. Vain imaginings ! Empty conceits ! 
The recorded reminiscence of a good work, of a cha- 
ritable deed, of a benevolent thought, are worth more 
than a " Pelion upon Ossa" of such monuments. Pos- 
terity is grateful, and if it can be benefited by any 
single incident of a man's life, the character of the 
benefactor will be remembered and appreciated. 
And if his deeds of goodness should fill a volume, 
posterity will never weary in " turning the leaf to 
read it," and to acknowledge its gratitude to the 
author. And such a prized volume have we afforded 
us by the life of William R. King ; a contemplation 
of which fills our hearts with gratitude, and inspires 
us to rejoice that as one among us he lived, and to 
sorrow that " he is no more." 

I believe it was Philip of Macedon who gratefully 
sacrificed to the gods that a son had been born to 
him in time to derive instruction from the great phi- 
losopher Aristotle. If such was the veneration of a 
barbarian warrior for a heathen philosopher, how 
much more grateful should we feel, both as statesmen 
and citizens, that our lots should have been cast in 
the same horoscope with that of Clay, Calhoun, and 
King; in the history of each of whom "there is a 
philosophy teaching by example," well fitted to steer 



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51 



our frail bark down its wayward course, clear of the 
dangerous rocks and shoals which are prone to wreck 
it. These distinguished compatriots, who, for nearly 
half a century, commanded the admiration of the 
American world, though widely differing one from 
another in peculiarities of character, yet each, in his 
life, left us a legacy, which, the more we read, the 
more we will appreciate. 

The two former, " having gathered together their 
earthly harvest," previous to the adjournment of the 
last Congress, have received from their admiring 
friends that tribute of respect which we are now 
called upon to render to the last. While we do not 
claim for our distinguished friend either the thrilling 
eloquence of Clay, or the philosophical discrimina- 
tion of Calhoun, yet, in the various positions which 
it was his fortune to fill, we find developed the true 
elements of moral and intellectual greatness. 

" Perhaps one of the highest encomiums ever pro- 
nounced on a man in public life," said the late John 
Quincy Adams, " is that of a historian, eminent for 
his profound acquaintance with mankind, who, in 
painting a great character by a single line, says — 
' He was just equal to all the duties of the highest 
offices which he attained, and never above them. 
There are, in some men, qualities which dazzle and 
consume to little or no valuable purpose. These sel- 
dom belong to the great benefactors of mankind.' " 
Such were not the qualities of Colonel King ; but in 



.» 



52 

all the relations of life, in every position he attained, 
he was fully equal to their responsibilities, and dis- 
charged their varied duties with fidelity and ability. 

Colonel King was born in Sampson county, in my 
State, April, 1786. His father, William King, was 
a gentleman of fortune and character. During the 
Revolutionary war, he rendered important services to 
his country's cause, both by personal service and # the 
generous use of his fortune. After the conclusion of 
the war, he was a member of the Convention which 
was called to adopt the Federal Constitution, and 
was repeatedly elected a Delegate to the General 
Assembly from his county. His situation in life en- 
abled him to bestow on his children all the advan- 
tages of education which our country at that time 
afforded. 

Colonel King was sent at an early age to the Uni- 
versity of North Carolina, located at Chapel Hill, 
which institution he left in his seventeenth year, 
bearing with him the happy consolation of having 
commanded the respect of his professors, the love 
and esteem of his associates. He studied law with 
William Duffy, an eminent jurist, residing in the 
town of Fayetteville, where he formed friendships 
which he preserved with affection to the day of his 
death. On being .admitted to the bar, he settled in 
his native county, from which he was returned the 
following year as a member of the Legislature. By 
this body he was elected Solicitor for the Wilmington 

fe — ■ » »T-nirTt-n«- & 



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53 



judicial district, in which situation he continued for 
two years. He was then again returned to the Legis- 
lature for the years 1808-9. In the year 1810 he 
was elected to the Congress of the United States, 
being the Twelfth Congress. This was a most im- 
portant crisis in our national affairs. France domi- 
nant in Europe, England mistress of the ocean, our 
neutrality was grossly disregarded by each of these 
supercilious Powers. To our menacing protests, 
France ultimately yielded respect. England con- 
tinued her career of haughty insolence. War or 
national degradation was inevitable. 

True republicans avoided not the issue, but met it 
boldly. Colonel King acted with them with his 
whole soul ; and, though one of the youngest 'mem- 
bers of the Congress, he was distinguished for the 
firm and fervid earnestness with which he supported 
the illustrious Madison in his patriotic efforts to sus- 
tain the honor of our country. He continued a 
member of Congress until after the conclusion of the 
war, when he accepted a diplomatic position abroad, 
associated with that scholar and statesman, William 
Pinckney. On his return from Europe, he changed 
his residence from North Carolina to Alabama, car- 
rying with him the cordial respect and good wishes 
of all — the enmity of no one. Alabama was then a 
Territory, but on the eve of organizing a State Go- 
vernment, and as soon as it was done, she, although 
Colonel King was then absent from the State, honored 



•t 



54 

him with one of her first Senatorial appointments in 
the Congress of the United States ; a most flattering 
mark of confidence, which confidence he enjoyed in 
the amplest manner during the remainder of his long 
and eventful life. It is unnecessary for me to read 
further from the volume of his life. His subsequent 
career has already been detailed by able and expe- 
rienced friends. What is the lesson which posterity 
can learn from this volume ? It is useful -l It is signifi- 
cant ! Let the honor, let the happiness of our coun- 
try, as with him, be our ruling aspiration ; but in its 
advocation let us so attemper, as he did, our con- 
duct ; so dispense the charities of life, that we can 
command for ourselves the love of friends, the ad- 
miration of opponents. While such is the brilliant 
picture of his public career, his private life, his frank 
and confiding disposition, his uniform courtesy and 
kindness, the single-hearted devotedness of his friend- 
ship, his kwe of right, his hatred of wrong, his bold 
and chivalric temper, present a character worthy of 
our study and emulation. 

" A combination and a form indeed, 
Where every god did seem to set his sea], 
To give the world assurance of a man." 

MR. BENTON, of Missouri, said : 

Mr. Speaker : — The relation in which I have 
stood to the eminent deceased, whose loss we all 
deplore, must plead my excuse for a departure from 



mm 



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55 

the ancient practice, which limits the number of 
tribute-offerers, on an occasion like the present, to 
the mover and seconder of the resolutions which 
express the sense of the House at the death of a fel- 
low-member. 

Natives of the same State, and nearly of the samo 
age, we emigrated when young, to what was then 
the Far West; and by the favor of our adopted 
States, were both returned, and nearly at the same 
time, to occupy seats on the floor of the American 
Senate. Commencing — he in 1819, I in 1820 — we 
remained for thirty years, (with the exception of the 
brief interval in which he represented his country at 
a foreign court,) members of the same body — inti- 
mately associated in all the current business of that 
body, and in all the amenities of social and private 
life. 

But my knowledge of him goes beyond thirty years 
— goes back to forty — and not then to the beginning 
of his Congressional service — when I first saw him 
on this floor. And I mention this first time of seeing 
him, and in what place, to do honor to the public 
man who could so long retain the confidence of his 
constituents ; and to their honor for the steadiness 
of their support ; and to the credit of our institutions, 
to which such stability between constituent and 
representative promises a duration, not to be measured 
by the brief lives of those republics whose people 
were given up to fickleness and versatility. 



■® 



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56 

These circumstances plead my excuse for departing 
from a custom which limited the number of those 
who should have the privilege of expressing, in the 
presence of the national representation, their own, 
and the general feeling, at the demise of a brother 
member. 

The members who have preceded me have stated, 
and well stated, the illustrious career of the deceased 
— tracing his course through a long gradation, always 
rising, of public honors — from the General Assembly 
of his native State, to the second office of his country 
— the Vice-Presidency of this great Kepublic. 

To me it only belongs to join my voice to theirs, 
and to the voices of all who knew him, in celebrating 
the integrity and purity of his life — the decorum of 
his manners — his assiduous and punctual attention 
to every duty — and the ability and intelligence 
which he brought to the discussion of the national 
affairs during his long service of thirty years. 

Faithful to his adopted State, he exhibited, when 
duty to her permitted, the beautiful trait of filial 
affection to the honored State of his birth — a State 
which has so many claims upon her children, (besides 
that of having first given them the vital air,) for 
their constant and grateful remembrance — whereso- 
ever they may go. 

As friend, as associate, as native of the same State 
with the late Vice-President King, I appear on this 
occasion, and feel it to be, in me, — his senior in age, 



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— m 



57 

— a providential privilege to assist in doing honor to 
his memory in the presence of the national repre- 
sentation. 

MR. PHillPS, of Alabama, said : 

Mr. Speaker : — I cannot permit this occasion to 
pass by, without paying tribute to the memory of 
the deceased. 

It is not, sir, to contribute to a mere ceremony, or 
to conform to any public expectation, that I now 
occupy the floor. My feelings are far too deep for 
such lip-service demonstration. 

It was my fortune, Mr. Speaker, to have enjoyed 
the full confidence and friendship of William: R. 
King, for the whole period of my residence in the 
State which I have now the honor to represent. I 
early learned to appreciate his high qualities ; and 
time, which tests all things, served but to confirm 
my judgment. I may now safely say of him dead, 
what, with equal confidence, I may have said were 
he now living, that the Republic never produced a 
man of more exalted integrity, or of a higher chivalry 
of character. 

I visited Washington for the first time a few years 
ago, and though it has been said, (with what truth I 
cannot assert,) that corruption here stalks at noon- 
day, it was with just pride as an Alabamian, that I 
learned from all quarters and all parties, that through 
his long service in the public councils of upward of 



®" 



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58 

a quarter of a century, he had not only preserved his 
reputation intact, but freed even from the breath of 
suspicion. 

It was this purity of character, joined to the high 
qualities of a remarkably well-balanced • mind, that 
enabled him to enjoy, for so long a period, the confi- 
dence of the people of his own State, and of the 
whole Confederacy. 

He has filled the . highest offices, and discharged 
the weightiest duties, with honor to himself and 
advantage to his country; well, therefore, may we 
conclude, in the language of the Presidential Mes- 
sage, that the death of such a man is an irreparable 
loss to the country. 

A great man has fallen, and it is fit we mourn 
him ! Dying, as he lived, with a full knowledge of 
the past, and a just appreciation of the future, may 
I not indulge in the hope, that the light of his ex- 
ample may long continue to illuminate the path of 
the future Representatives of the State which holds 
his remains and cherishes his memory ! 

The question was taken, and the resolutions were unani- 
mously adopted. 



IP- i ii M i i 



<s,» 



■9 



SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, 



December 9, 1853. 



Associate 
Justices. 



Pursuant to adjournment, the Court met this morning at 
the Capitol : 
Present — 
The Honorable Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice. 
John McLean, 
James M. Wayne, 
John Catron, 
Peter V. Daniel, 
Samuel Nelson, 
Robert G. Grier, 
Benj. R. Curtis, Jr. 
John A. Campbell, 
Jonah D. Hoover, Esquire, Marshal. 
William Thomas Carroll, Clerk. 

Proclamation being made, the Court is opened. 

At the opening of the Court this morning, Mr. Cushing, 
the Attorney-General of the United States, addressed the 
Court as follows : 

May it please your Honors : — I rise to submit a 
motion which seems to be called for by the nature 

59 



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60 

of the subject-matter. God, in his inscrutable but 
supreme will, has removed from the service of the 
country, and from that path of honor which, through 
a long lifetime of greatness and goodness, he had so 
nobly trod, the Vice-President of the United States. 
When the voice of some future panegyrist, on the 
banks of the Mississippi, the Bravo, or the Columbia, 
shall speak of the heroes, the legislators, the states- 
men, and the magistrates of our country, as he re- 
counts the names borne on that glorious roll of im- 
mortality, he cannot fail to pause with unalloyed 
satisfaction at the name of William R. King. Pro- 
vidence from time to time raises up men to lead 
armies on to victory through the clash of the battle- 
field, or by rare gifts of written or spoken thought 
to wield, at will, the fiercest impulses of nations. 
Such men, if they have a superlatively splendid 
career, yet have an agitated one. They create 
events, and they partake of the vicissitudes of 
events. They may, they often do, have shaded 
sides of the mental formation, without which the 
bright ones would be too dazzlingly brilliant. They 
come to be praised or dispraised alternately, accord- 
ing to the light in which their actions are viewed, and 
the flux or reflux of the tides of popular emotion. If 
William P. King be not of these, yet he has an 
appropriate and perhaps a more enviable place in 
the temple of fame and in the hearts of Americans. 
For of him it is with plainest truth to be said, that 



3- 



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61 

with lofty elements in his character to merit and 
receive the most absolute commendation, there is 
nothing in it open to censure. He stands to the 
memory, in sharp outline, as it were, against the 
sky, like some chiselled column of antique art, or 
some consular statue of the imperial republic 
wrapped in its marble robes, grandly beautiful in 
the simple dignity and unity of a faultless pro- 
portion. 

Placed at an early age in that august assembly, 
the highest, all things considered, in this or any 
other land — the Senate of the United States — and 
continuing there, save with brief interruption of the 
most eminent diplomatic employment, during a 
whole generation of time, and repeatedly elevated to 
preside over its deliberations, he had grown to be, 
not of.it merely, but its representative man, its typi- 
cal person, its all-conspicuous model of an upright, 
pure, spotless, high-minded, chivalric American Sena- 
tor. This it is, in my judgment, which constitutes 
the distinctive trait in his character and career, and 
which drew to him the veneration and the confi- 
dence of his countrymen. We think of him almost 
as an historical monument of senatorial integrity, 
rather than as a mere mortal man of the age. Like 
that gallant soldier, who received the baton of mar- 
shal in the very scene of his achievements, and fell, 
struck by a cannon-shot, in the act of grasping 
the insignia of his command, so the Vice-President 



«■ 



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62 

did but reach the pinnacle of his greatness to die. 
Such a death, so timed, though premature for us 
whom he has left behind to the toils and cares of 
public duty, was not premature for the consummate 
completeness of his renown. Knowing how deeply 
his loss must be deplored by your Honors, it is 
deemed fitting for me to move that this Court, in 
unison with what has been done by the two Houses 
of Congress, do now adjourn, in manifestation of its 
respect for the memory of the deceased Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States. 



To which Mr. Chief-Justice TANEY replied : 

The Court is sensible that every mark of re- 
spect is due to the memory of the late Vice-Presi- 
dent, William R. King. 

His life was passed in the public service, and 
marked, throughout it, by its purity, integrity, and 
disinterested devotion to the public good. 

It is true, that no part of it connected him par- 
ticularly with the judicial branch of this Govern- 
ment. But the people of the United States had ele- 
vated him to the highest office but one in their gift ; 
and the loss of a Statesman like him, so honored, 
and so worthy of the honor bestowed, is felt to be a 
public calamity by this department of Government, 
as well as by that to which he more immediately be- 
longed. And as a token of their high respect for 

i > i 



»® 



63 • 

him while living, and their sincere sorrow for his 
death, the Court will adjourn to-day without trans- 
acting its ordinary business. 



Test: 



;WM. THOS. CARROLL, 

Clerk of Supreme Court U. S. 



THE END. 



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